mexican food

i enjoy mexican food. always. i LOVE real corn tortillas, soft, and hot off the tortilla press, topped with almost anything.

mexican food should NOT be confused with fake mexican. fake mexican, which takes the same 5 ingredients and combines them in nearly endless (and repetitive) permutations. hey look! it's a new menu item from taco bell! it has a tortilla! and spiced meat! lettuce! holy shit! and CHEESE!!! and MORE GOOEY FAKE CHEESE! jesucristo, what a unique creation!

real mexican food (from an authentic restaurant, or made at home), can have surprising depth of flavor, beyond just cumin. Almonds, unsweetened chocolate, and pumpkin are all among the unexpected flavors that you can find in authentic mexican. today i went to a local authentic (YES you CAN get authentic ethnic food in the midwest) mexicarn restaurant in milwaukee with a couple friends and had a delicious dish with mole almendrado... amazing. the dish was simple: grilled chicken covered in mole, with veggie rice and tortillas along with the usual lettuce, tomato, and sour cream on the side. there was also a delicious spicy tortilla soup with just a tad of queso chihuahua (NOT nacho cheese. or pepperjack. or whatever nasty americanized cheese most places slather on). after having this mole for the first time in a couple years, i decided that successfully making a real mole sauce would be my next cooking quest.

when i mentioned this ambition to my good friend marisa over at policy-and-purls.blogspot.com, she said "mole is one of those things you just can't make, I think. unless you are 80 years old... it's soooo complicated, and requires like a zillion ingredients... but that's why it's so damn good." with that challenging? disheartening? harsh? feedback in mind, my resolve to perfect a mole was steeled.

i plan to make my mole creations over the weekend, and until then, i'll be looking for some base recipes to add my own flavor too... i'll update then!